Nudity in art

(From Wikipedia)

The depiction of nudity in art
has generally conformed — with some variation — to social
standards for public nudity; in cultures where nudity was
accepted, nude figures in painting and sculpture were as well.
However, some cultures have tolerated artistic nudity more than
actual nudity, with a different set of standards of what is
acceptable. Sometimes live nudity is more acceptable if the
model does not move.

General depictions

As social attitudes about
artistic nudity have changed, this has sometimes led to conflict
over art that no longer conforms to prevailing standards. For
example, the Roman Catholic Church once organized the so-called
fig-leaf campaign to cover nudity in art, starting from
the works of Renaissance artist Michelangelo.

The nude has become an
enduring genre of representational art, especially painting,
sculpture, and photography. It depicts people without clothes
on, usually with stylistic and staging conventions that
distinguish the artistic elements (such as innocence, or similar
theatrical/artistic elements) of being nude with the more
provocative state of being naked. A nude figure is
one, such as a goddess or a man in ancient Greece, for whom the
lack of clothing is its usual condition, so that there is no
sexual suggestiveness presumed. A naked figure is one,
such as a contemporary prostitute or a businessman, who usually
wears clothing, such that their lack of it in this scene implies
sexual activity or suggestiveness. The latter were rare in
European art from the Medieval period until the latter half of
the 1800s; in the interim, a work featuring an unclothed woman
would routinely identify her as "Venus" or another Greco-Roman
goddess, to justify her nudity.

Nudity in art, also publicly
displayed, is rather common and more accepted than public nudity
of real people. For example, a statue or painting representing a
nude person may be displayed in public places where actual
nudity is not allowed. However, there is also much art depicting
a nude person with a piece of cloth seemingly by chance covering
the genitals.

A 1960s sketch featuring
English comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore admiring Cezanne's
"Les Grandes Baigneuses" in the National Gallery humorously
suggested that there must be hundreds of paintings that are not
publicly displayed because the pieces of cloth did not fall in
just the right places while the artist was painting them.

In modern media, images of
partial and full nudity are used in advertising to draw
additional attention. In the case of attractive models this
attention is due to the visual pleasure the images provide; in
other cases it is due to the relative rarity of images of
nudity. The use of nudity in advertising tends to be carefully
controlled to avoid the impression that the company whose
product is being advertised is indecent or unrefined. There are
also limits on what advertising media such as magazines allow.
The success of sexually provocative advertising is claimed in
the truism "sex sells". However, responses to nudity in American
advertisements have been more mixed; nudity in the
advertisements of Calvin Klein, Benetton, and Abercrombie &
Fitch, to name three companies, have provoked much negative as
well as positive response.

Of images of nudity (not
necessarily pornographic), the most extreme form is full frontal
nudity, referring to the fact that the actor or model is
presented from the front and including "everything", indicating
that the genitals are exposed. Frequently images of nude people
do not go that far and photos are deliberately composed, and
films edited, such that in particular no genitalia are seen, as
if the camera failed to see them by chance. This is sometimes
called "implied nudity" as opposed to "explicit nudity".

Film and television

The portrayal of nudity in
motion pictures and television has long been controversial. Full
nudity has gained much wider acceptance in European cinema and
television, where in contrast to their US counterparts the
audience perceive nudity and sexuality in general as less
objectionable than the depiction of violence.

Broadcast television and most
"basic cable" outlets in the United States have been more
reluctant to display nudity in most cases, the exception being
PBS. A few series in the 1990s, including NYPD Blue, have
occasionally used partial nudity, both male and female. When
broadcast on television, theatrically released films featuring
nudity are usually presented with the nude scenes edited out, or
the nudity is obscured in some fashion (for example digital
imagery may be used to clothe nude actors). Several premium
cable services such as HBO and Showtime have gained popularity
for, among other things, presenting unedited films. In addition,
they have produced series that do not shy away from nude scenes,
including Oz, Sex and the City, The Sopranos,
and Queer as Folk.

Other depictions in vernacular
culture

Nudity is occasionally
presented in other media as well, often with attending
controversy. Album cover art featuring nude photographs,
featuring music by performers such as Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon
and Yoko Ono, Blind Faith, and Jane's Addiction, have stirred
controversy over the years. Several rock musicians have
performed nude on stage, including members of Jane's Addiction,
Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, The Jesus Lizard, Red Hot
Chilli Peppers, blink-182, and The Bravery.

Television soap operas have
rarely shown any risque nudity, the exception being the Procter
& Gamble soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding
Light which in 2005 went as far as featuring rear male
nudity during lovemaking scenes. After the Janet Jackson Super
Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, FCC commissioner Michael
J. Copps stated that it was time for a crackdown on daytime
television and indicated that he was reviewing whether soap
operas were violating the agency's indecency prohibitions.
Following this news, Guiding Light edited out nudity from
an episode that had already been taped. A week later, the show's
executive producer John Conboy was fired and replaced by Ellen
Wheeler. All nine American network soaps began to impose an
unwritten rule of avoiding any sort of risque adult scenes.

On the Internet, especially on
websites featuring images of well known people, the terms
nude and nudity have often been used (some would say
misused) to signify indecent exposure; for example, a photo of
an otherwise fully clothed woman with a nipple exposed.

An exception is often made for
the depiction of peoples whose nudity is acceptable within the
mores of a traditional culture. This so-called "ethnographic"
nudity has appeared in National Geographic magazine, as well as
documentaries broadcast in the United States. In some cases,
media outlets may show nudity which occurs in a "natural" or
spontaneous setting in news programs or documentaries, while
blurring out or censoring the nudity in a dramatic work.

Sexuality and nudity

In soft core pornography, which
was originally presented mainly in the form of "men's
magazines", it was barely acceptable to show a glimpse of nipple
in the 1950s. By the 1970s, in such mainstream magazines as
Playboy and Hustler, no region of the body was
considered off limits. Meanwhile, a growing business of hardcore
pornography has developed, including photo magazines and motion
pictures, in which total nudity (and any variety of sexual
activity) is commonplace.

Originally, nude dancing was
mainly presented in the form of the "strip-tease". This was
generally a stage show in which the dancer progressively removed
her clothing while dancing to music. Prominent early- to
mid-twentieth century "strip-tease artists" such as Gypsy Rose
Lee rarely included total nudity as part of their sometimes
quite elaborate acts. Now most "exotic" dancers perform topless
(independent of gender, of course), perhaps wearing a thong
bottom. In the 1970s, on an official level, men entered the
strip club field, performing partially-unclothed dances
primarily at clubs aimed for heterosexual women (the
Chippendales being the most common example). Both genders had
been unofficially dancing at clubs for many years (at least
since the 1950's), and today at clubs catering to gay, straight,
and everything in-between clientele.